A PILGRIMAGE 83 



every camp I became the object of adoration and 

 petition by individuals, families and groups, ailing 

 from one thing or another, who approached me on 

 bended knee, begging drugs. At times I was prac- 

 tically mobbed. It mattered not what the ailment, 

 or whether it was fancied or real ; they had heard 

 of my medicine and would not be denied. In the 

 thought of ridding myself of their embarrassing 

 entreaties, I one day gave out some pills— the 

 bitterest things ever compounded; but the " pa- 

 tients,'' to my utter consternation, chewed them 

 greedily. The more distasteful the stuff, in fact, 

 the more convinced they seemed to be of its 

 medicinal properties. In a foolish moment at one 

 camp, I painted some grotesque figures in iodine 

 on a woman's swollen breast which had been 

 offered for treatment ; and within three days every 

 similarly affected woman dogged my footsteps 

 until I had to appeal to the chief for deliverance 

 from their importunities. Citronelle, too, which 

 I had brought in the delusion of its sparing me 

 from mosquitoes, proved a great favorite with the 

 gentle sex. 



Personally, I used very little medicine. Al- 

 though advised by doctors in town to take five 

 grains of quinine daily, it seemed to me that such 

 a course would get my system so accustomed to the 

 drug that it would not respond when there was 



